what a short book

[Paul KAY]

On Sun, 23 Jun 1996, Avery Andrews wrote:

> Paul Kay wrote (22 June 1996):
> 
>  >I can't speak for LFG, of course, or properly even *in* LFG, but I don't 
>  >think
>  >
>  >(1)	What a short book!
>  >
>  >has anything essential to do with modification of any kind.  
>  >We're going to have to account anyway for
>  >
>  >(2)	What a fiasco!
>  >	What courage!
> 
> I think they do, because in the (1) construction the surpise is clearly
> directed at the length of the book, rather than some hard-to-pin-down aspect
> of its `bookiness', as would be the case with no adjective:
> 
>   (3)  what a book!

But is this effect due to th construction in (1)? In (b), we get the same 
the same surprise directed at the length of the book.

(a)	I'm surprised it's a book.
(b)	I'm sujrprised it's a short book.
> 
> Furthermore, the construction becomes impossible if the modifier is
> non-gradable:
> 
>   (4) *what an alleged book!
> 
There's something right about this, but the gradableness doesn't 
necessarily involve a modifier.  Compare

(c)	What a messy situation!
(d)	What a mess!

These seem to mean the same thing and the degree of messiness seems to be 
targeted in both.  


The following all get a gradabillity/intensification kind of reading:

What a disaster!
Waht a success!
What a bastard!
What a fool!
...
Can these be unrelated to

What a disasterous outcome!
What a successful outcome!
and so on..

> 
>   Avery.Andrews at anu.edu.au
> 

> 
PK